11 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial
By: Jeff Jeong
SEOUL, South Korea ― The South Korean military's long-sought purchase of training helicopters has been ruptured due to price issues, prompting the arms procurement agency to prepare a rebidding process for the aircraft acquisition project code-named TH-X.
Bell (formerly Bell Helicopter) and Leonardo Helicopters were competing for the $155 million project to procure 41 training helicopters both for the South Korean Army and the Navy, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, or DAPA.
“The TH-X selection, originally due late last year, has been delayed, and a bidder failed to meet some of the TH-X requirements,” DAPA spokesman Kang Hwan-seok said. “As the TH-X acquisition is a competition basis, we're scheduled to proceed with a rebidding soon.”
Multiple industry sources said the TH-X negotiations broke down mainly because of cost concerns.
“Bidding price was an issue, but there are some other reasons, too,” Kang said, adding his agency would issue a request for proposals again between June and July. He declined to elaborate further.
The South Korean military has sought to introduce new training helicopters to replace the older fleet of MD 500s, which have been operational for more than 30 years. The DAPA issued an RFP for the TH-X in November 2015.
Bell offered its new 505 Jet Ranger light helicopter, which successfully completed its first flight in November 2014, while Leonardo suggested its SW-4 light single-engine multirole helicopter produced its Polish subsidiary PZL Swidnik.
Both companies are expected to participate in the TH-X retender, according to DAPA officials.
24 avril 2024 | International, Aérospatial
GA-ASI partnered with Dillon Aero to mount two of Dillon’s DAP-6 Gun Pod Systems onto the Mojave aircraft. Mojave performed seven passes across two flights during the demonstration, expending around...
29 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Lockheed Martin has sent $1.1 billion in accelerated payment to support its network of suppliers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced Friday. The defense contracting giant has also hired 8,300 employees since the crisis began in March, with plans to hire 3,200 more before the end of the year. The hires mark a contrast with the rest of the U.S. economy, which saw the unemployment rate hit 13 percent this month and began a recession in February. “In this volatile environment, it is more important than ever before to maintain the operations of the defense industrial base and support our men and women in uniform,” Lockheed's new president and CEO, Jim Taiclet, said in a statement. Ever since the Pentagon announced it would speed progress payments to its suppliers to keep cash flowing in the defense-industrial base, it says it has made $3 billion in contract obligations. The Pentagon is working to support smaller firms in particular. Lockheed Martin said Friday it has “flowed all of the accelerated payments it has received from the Department of Defense to its supply chain, giving priority to small and vulnerable suppliers, as we continue our efforts to mitigate COVID-19 risks and promote a healthy Defense Industrial Base.” This wasn't the only good news for the sector this week. Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said at a Monday news conference that nearly all of the defense firms closed by the pandemic have reopened. “We see an enormous amount of recovery in the defense-industrial base. It depends on location and what type of work is being performed, but there is enormous progress coming back,” Lord said. “Obviously for manufacturing we need people on the line, so we're doing things differently in terms of following [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's] guidelines and so forth.” Still, the Pentagon expects to see “inefficiencies” across most programs as well as cost growth. “COVID-19 is shutting down defense manufacturing facilities and production lines, disrupting supply chains, and distressing the financial stability of the companies DoD relies on to protect the nation,” Lord said. Due to the effects of the pandemic, Lockheed said it would slow F-35 production, leaving it anywhere from 18 to 24 jets short of the 141 scheduled for delivery this year. https://www.defensenews.com/2020/06/26/lockheed-paid-suppliers-11b-added-8300-jobs-since-covid-19-hit/
8 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By Anthony Capaccio The defense industry has made major strides reducing the impact of Covid-19 on operations, decreasing total closings of facilities to six on Monday from a high of 148 in mid-April, according to the Pentagon agency that oversees contracts. “We're seeing a significantly smaller fraction of the industrial base impacted on a daily basis” as contractors have become “better at restoring operational capability after potential exposures” to the coronavirus, Army Lieutenant General David Bassett, director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, said in an interview. “We've gone from having a substantial fraction of the industrial base impacted to today,” where it's “just a handful.” In total, 279 defense contracting locations were forced to shut down an average of 20 days since April because of the pandemic. In addition, 149 locations currently have reduced operations because of the virus, according to the agency, which tracks 10,509 locations of major defense contractors and their subcontractors. “These closures have generally been short-term in order to clean facilities” or to “reduce the potential exposure of employees,” according to agency spokesman Matthew Montgomery. Ellen Lord, the Defense Department's acquisitions chief, has warned that pandemic disruptions are expected to result in defense industry claims for reimbursement of more than $10 billion under the Cares Act, which provides economic aid including reimbursing contractors for payments to employees affected by disruptions such as plant closings. She has said a single contractor, which she didn't name, is estimated to have at least $1.5 billion in potential claims. Bassett said the decline in plant closings reflects that companies “have really got a plan in place so that they know what they have to do when they find people who have been exposed, how they have to handle the plant and then what they can do to get back up quickly and safely.” Bassett assumed command of the contract agency on June 3 after a career that included positions as the Army's top program manager for command-and-control networks and for ground-combat vehicles. “As we watch right now and cases are beginning to rise in certain areas of the country, I've asked all of our teams to really think about what we can do right now to make sure if we do end up in a shutdown we can avoid impacts to the industrial base and our deliveries,” he said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-07/defense-industry-s-covid-closings-decline-pentagon-agency-says